Pavel Fedulev, a former Russian businessman known as the country's first 1990s corporate raider, has been released from custody after serving a prison sentence for murder, fraud, and illegal asset seizures, local media reported.
News outlet e1_news reported on its Telegram channel, citing an unnamed source, that Fedulev was recently living at a correctional center and has now returned home.
Fedulev was originally implicated in organizing public unrest and leading the 2003 corporate takeover of the Oboronsnabsbyt market. He served nine years in prison in connection with the market seizure before facing further prosecution.
In 2011, a court handed Fedulev an additional 20-year sentence in a penal colony. Judges found him guilty of organizing seven murders, establishing an organized crime syndicate, committing fraud, and carrying out the hostile takeovers of four separate companies.
Rise of Corporate Raiding in Russia
His prosecution marked Russia's first legal case specifically targeting black raiding, a term used across the country to describe illegal hostile corporate takeovers. During the economic turmoil that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, raiders frequently used forged documents, corrupt legal rulings, and physical force to seize control of lucrative industrial factories and commercial properties.
Prior to his convictions, Fedulev built a major financial empire in Sverdlovsk Oblast, a heavily industrialized region located in the Ural Mountains. His commercial holdings included the Yekaterinburg Meat Processing Plant and the Baranchinsky Electromechanical Plant.
Political Career and Penal System
Fedulev also entered regional politics, serving for a period as a deputy in the Sverdlovsk Legislative Assembly. Sverdlovsk Oblast, with its regional capital of Yekaterinburg, was a key center of privatization and industrial reallocation during post-Soviet economic restructuring.
Under the Russian penal system, inmates serving long terms in penal colonies may be transferred to low-security correctional centers toward the end of their sentences to perform supervised labor before gaining complete freedom. According to e1_news, Fedulev completed his time in an administrative correctional facility before arriving back at his residence.
